Opposing Forces
by KisaHeart22
Summary: For when the greatest of opposing forces come together hand-in-hand, only then will peace be restored to the land. (Elsa/Hans pairing)
1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

/

Anna growled and bared her teeth, fists raised above her head. She punched the air and growled again.

"Uh, lion," Kristoff guessed.

"Grizzly bear!" Olaf declared.

Anna continued to growl and beat at the air. She then pretended to pick up something heavy and throw it down.

"Monster," Kristoff said.

"Brown bear!" Olaf chimed in.

Elsa wanted to throw out a guess of her own but, to be honest, she wasn't sure what Anna was doing. Olaf and Kristoff seemed to have pretty good guesses.

"Uh, angry face," Kristoff continued.

"Black bear!" Olaf said and then, "Hans?"

Anna suddenly pointed to him and then motioned with her hand to continue.

"Unredeemable monster!" Elsa quickly guessed excitedly with a raise of her hand.

"Greatest mistake of your life!" Kristoff pointed.

"Wouldn't even kiss you!" Olaf piped in.

Sven jingled the bell signaling time was up.

"Villain," Anna sighed.

"Ahh," they all nodded.

"We all kind of got it," Olaf grinned.

/

"I don't know... I had this dream the other night. Well... more like a nightmare," Anna winced with a motion of her hands.

"You had a nightmare?" Elsa asked, worry filling her eyes. "Why didn't you come get me?"

"I mean, I'm a little old to be crawling into my big sister's bed every time I have a bad dream."

"Never stopped you before," Elsa smiled. "What was the dream?"

"... Hans came back," Anna said quietly.

"Oh."

"Yeah, and... you were standing with him."

"You mean freezing him into a block of ice?" Elsa suggested.

"Uh... No. Not exactly," Anna said, suddenly refusing to meet Elsa's gaze. She was hiding something about the dream, Elsa could tell, but she didn't want to push her sister if she didn't want to talk about it.

"Anna, it was just a dream," Elsa smiled sympathetically, taking Anna's hands in hers. Anna glanced back up at her, finally meeting her gaze again. "Hans is long gone and he is never coming back."

/

"You said we would do this together," Anna accused. "You promised!"

"I'm sorry, Anna. But this is something I have to do on my own."

Elsa threw out her magic, pushing Anna and Olaf back into a boat of ice, the rushing river pulling them away within seconds.

"ELSA!"

Anna's angry scream echoed in her ears as Elsa gasped, the saltwater suffocating. She kicked the waves and thrashed against the currant but the mythical water horse plowed into her, dragging her down deep below the surface.

She fought and kicked, trying to strike the horse with her ice powers, but it pulled her further and further down. Her lungs constricted as her vision grew dark. Pain gripped her chest as her attacks became weaker.

Sudden movement appeared out of the corner of her eye and then an orange light flashed beside her. Finally the horse dissipated and she felt warm arms wrap around her waist before her vision turned black.

/

Elsa could feel a warmth spread from her lips and across her cheeks, it flowed down her neck and filled her chest. It was an intense warmth she had never felt before.

She gasped as her heart lurched and then she rolled over coughing and retching, saltwater expelling from her stomach. She was only vaguely aware that she was no longer in the ocean, her half frozen hands digging into soft sand.

She raised up shakily onto her hands and knees, sucking in a sharp, painful, breath, but then collapsed, too weak to even open her eyes. She clutched her hands to her chest, willing herself to get up, to do something other than quit, but she could only lay there.

She felt something dig into the sand below her shoulder and then her knees but she was far too weak to even turn her head to see what it was. And then she was suddenly being lifted into the air and cradled against a warm, firm, surface.

A voice spoke above her head, so painfully familiar but not enough for her to register a face with it before she lost consciousness again.

"Well, you must have quite the story to tell, Snowflake."


	2. Chapter 2 - Warmth

That was the first thing Elsa registered as she came out of her fitful sleep.

It was warm, too warm for her liking.

She blinked, an orange glow blurring her vision. She blinked again and a small campfire came into focus a few feet away from her.

She could feel a pillow beneath her head but there was something else soft brushing against her cheek. She turned her head slightly to see a thick tan blanket draped over her along with a thinner pale green blanket on top of that. There was even a dark blue coat that had been laid over the top of those.

So that was why Elsa felt uncomfortably warm. All of those layers of fabric... it was too much. Especially for someone like her that was used to the cold.

She pulled her arm free and then pushed the coat and the green blanket down to her legs.

"Too warm?"

Elsa whipped her head around, her blue eyes colliding with an emerald stare on the other side of the small campfire.

"Your skin was turning to ice," the man explained. "I figured you'd wake up if you got too warm."

That voice...

It was the same voice from her dream, her memory. But it was familiar in a different way, like she had heard it even before then.

The man poured a hot liquid from the kettle hanging over the fire into a wooden cup and then rose to his feet. As he stepped forward, the flames suddenly illuminated his face and Elsa felt her stomach lurch.

She shot up into a sitting position and threw her hands out, a warning not to move.

Hans stared at her, his feet frozen in place but only metaphorically, the cup still held in his hand.

She could freeze him right then into a block of ice.

She could do it.

She SHOULD do it.

He tried to kill her. He left Anna to freeze to death. Anna... He wouldn't even kiss her!

... Okay, that last one might have been petty. He didn't love Anna. He never loved Anna. Elsa wasn't sure Hans had ever loved anyone. He was a monster. He probably wasn't even capable of love.

They stared at each other for a long minute, neither one of them moving.

Elsa could feel the power in her fingertips. One flick of her wrist and he'd be a solid ice statue. He'd never be able to hurt anyone again.

She could do it. It wouldn't make her a monster.

Hans bent down ever so slowly, his eyes never leaving Elsa's, and placed the cup on the ground in front of him.

Elsa watched his every move like a hawk, her arms still extended, the magic held by a thread in her fingertips.

He gently nudged the cup towards her until it was within arm's reach and then he slowly straightened up and took a cautious step back. It was only after he had returned to his seat on the other side of the fire that Elsa allowed her hands to relax.

She glanced down at the cup of piping hot liquid, sprinkles of tiny, dried, flowers floating on the top. Her eyes returned to Hans' emerald gaze.

"Chamomile," he said, pouring the tea into a second cup. "I'm partial to ginger myself but, alas, ginger root is hard to come by around here. It was this or hot water."

He took a sip as Elsa glanced back down at the cup in front of her. She looked up again with narrowed eyes but his gaze was no longer on her. She hesitantly reached out and picked up the cup, observing the small white flowers floating on the top.

Chamomile, just as he said. She took a sniff at the liquid and then breathed in a little deeper. It smelled so good. She couldn't remember the last time she had chamomile tea.

But that smell could be masking a strong poison.

Elsa shot Hans a suspicious glance but he wasn't paying attention to her. His gaze was locked on the small campfire, a weariness in his green eyes that Elsa hadn't expected to see. She allowed herself to study his appearance a little more closely.

His orangish-red hair had grown longer since she last saw him. It swept across the tops of his ears and fell about an inch down the back of his neck. He had grown a short beard that stretched from the sides of his ears down to his chin and spread across his upper lip. It made him look older, more mature somehow.

He had looked so young standing next to Anna all those years ago when they had declared they were getting married. Now he looked even older than Elsa and she found herself briefly wondering how old Hans was exactly but she quickly pushed the thought from her mind. It didn't matter anyway.

Her eyes wandered down to his broad shoulders and wide chest. He was larger than she remembered too. Not as large as Kristoff but whatever Hans had been doing these last few years, it had graced him with a more muscular physique.

Elsa's eyes eventually returned to Hans' face and her blue gaze collided with his emerald stare. She quickly looked away, feeling a slight flush rise to her cheeks. Had he noticed her staring at him?

"Where are we?" Elsa asked with authority, hoping the soft glow from the fire wouldn't reveal her embarrassment.

"The Southern Isles," Hans responded simply.

The Southern Isles? But that meant...

Elsa didn't know how she had ended up that far south but somehow she had greatly missed her northern target. Had she accidentally headed the wrong way?

No. That melody had called to her, beckoned her to race across the sea. So how did she end up there?

"And where are we exactly?" Elsa pressed.

"On the main island just north of Deitra," Hans responded, taking a sip from his cup. "The ocean is beyond those hills out there."

"Why did you bring me here?"

"You'd rather I left you to die?"

Elsa didn't respond.

"I saw you thrashing around out in the water before you went under. I didn't recognize you at first without your braid and then when I brought you back to the shore, I wasn't sure you would even survive. Your pulse was faint and your hands were turning to ice. You must have some reason for being this far from Arendelle," Hans said.

Elsa stared at him for a moment and then looked back down at the cup in her hands growing steadily cooler.

That voice she had heard on the beach... That had been his voice but... he had picked her up, carried her here. He had built a fire and put blankets over her and... his coat. While Hans himself sat on the other side of the fire with only a thin buttoned-up shirt tucked into his dark pants.

If Hans wanted her dead, he could've left her out there in the ocean, pretended like he never saw her. She would've certainly drowned.

But... he saved her...

Elsa narrowed her eyes.

"I don't know what you're hoping to get out of this but if you're trying to make up for what you did in the past, it won't work," she said coldly.

She still remembered all too well what he had done to them, what he had tried to do to them. It was a permanently dark spot on her memory, that day she had almost lost both her sister and her own life.

"I gave up on making amends for my actions a long time ago," Hans spoke quietly, not meeting her gaze. "It doesn't change the way people look at you."

Elsa studied his face, the cup in her hands now cold. It didn't seem like he was trying to gain sympathy but with Hans she couldn't be sure.

"Did you leave? Or did they throw you out?" She asked with an upwards tilt of her chin.

She hadn't missed the sets of clothing folded neatly in the corner of the small hut or the dried meat hanging on the wall or the various hunting weapons stored by the door. It was obvious he was living an unusually rough life for a prince.

Hans looked up at her, a hint of humor in his green eyes as his lips slid into a dry smirk.

"I left."

Elsa was surprised to hear that. If the Southern Isles had accepted his actions enough to let him stay, he must have been put through a lot to leave the palace on his own. Not that he didn't deserve it.

"What about you?" Hans continued, his smirk widening. "Did you leave? Or did they throw you out?"

Elsa didn't respond. Instead she met his gaze head-on with a look of cold neutrality. He didn't need to know anything about her mission or Arendelle's current crisis.

Hans shrugged a shoulder.

"Fair enough," he said, holding the still piping hot cup of tea to his lips.

It was then that a soft melody floated across the air, filling the small hut's walls like they weren't even there. Elsa's head snapped up, her magic suddenly freezing solid the cup in her hands. Hans lowered his own cup, his face lifting upwards to the hole in the center of the roof that revealed the night sky through the hazy smoke.

When the soft melody faded out, Elsa's gaze returned to Hans as he looked back down at the campfire.

"You..." Elsa breathed, almost too stunned to speak. "You can hear it too."

Hans glanced over at her, his gaze lingering on the frozen cup in her hands.

"I've been hearing it for a while. I just ignore it," he said, reaching behind him to retrieve another wooden cup. "Need some more?"

Elsa shook her head, placing the cup on the floor, and then rose to her feet. She pushed open the front door and stepped outside into the cool night air.

"Elsa," Hans' voice spoke from behind her. She could hear him getting to his feet.

She studied the grassy hills in front of her, spotting the dark ocean waves beyond them. She soon felt a warm presence behind her.

"I've been hearing it for a while too," Elsa said. "I thought my powers were making me crazy because nobody else could hear it. I tried to ignore it but... it kept calling to me."

Elsa looked up at Hans as he towered nearly a foot above her head. She didn't remember him being that tall either.

"I think it led me out here," Elsa said, more to herself.

Maybe even led her to Hans... but why? So she would know she wasn't the only one losing her mind? It wasn't exactly comforting to know that Hans was the other person that could hear it too.

The melody suddenly floated over the hills once more, calling to her. Perhaps calling to them. The voice may have led her to the Southern Isles but it certainly wasn't coming from the islands anymore. It was coming from the north just like she had originally thought.

Without even thinking, Elsa bolted across the grassy hills towards the ocean.

"Elsa!" Hans called out but she ignored him.

She ran over the short hills until she could see the ocean waves crashing on the shore. She paused at the edge of the sand listening to the melody that floated over the sea. It was like a siren beckoning her down into the depths.

As she took a step into the sand, warm fingers suddenly grasped her wrist. She looked back, meeting Hans' emerald stare, his breathing slightly elevated from the chase.

"Hold up, Snowflake."

Snowflake?

It was the same name he had spoken in her memory when he had picked her up off the sand. Such an innocent word in reference to the deadly power she possessed. Admittedly, Elsa kind of liked the sound of the nickname but not coming from Hans' lips.

"I didn't pull you out of the ocean just for you to run out there and get yourself killed," Hans frowned.

"I have to go," Elsa said firmly. "Perhaps you can ignore it but Arendelle is counting on me. Anna is counting on me."

"Arendelle?" Hans questioned, his emerald eyes searching hers. "What happened to Arendelle?"

Elsa held her free hand up beside her, fingers tense, but there was no power flowing into them. Hans didn't need to know that though. Just like he didn't need to know about the destruction happening in Arendelle that had forced all of them to flee.

"Let go of me," Elsa ordered.

Hans glanced to her hand as the edge of his lips quirked upwards into a small smirk.

"Go ahead. You've been wanting to freeze me this whole time."

"Don't think I won't," Elsa said, her fingers flexing in warning.

"I'm waiting."

"Let go of me," she repeated.

"It's the middle of the night," Hans spoke more gently. "You almost drowned. Just stay here for the evening and we can figure out how to get you back to Arendelle in the morning."

Over Elsa's dead body was she spending the night with Hans.

"You won't be any help to Arendelle, or your sister, if you drown," he continued softly.

His fingers were warm, surprisingly very warm, against her skin. Elsa could feel the coldness of her raised hand but that warmth stretching up her arm from his touch was incredibly distracting. It was like a blanket over her ice powers, thawing them in a way, keeping them from springing forth.

"Why do you care?" Elsa asked, not really meaning for the question to sound so harsh. "Why should you care if I drown or not? I already told you this won't change anything."

Hans stared at her for a moment longer and then turned his face away, the warmth of his hand finally leaving her wrist.

Elsa could see where her normally porcelain white skin had turned pinkish, almost healthy looking, from his touch. She frowned at the color. Anna's touch never changed her skin when they held hands. But Hans' touch felt much warmer, perhaps that was the difference.

She looked back out at the ocean waves crashing against each other, the dark swells large and intimidating. For the first time, she actually began to question her desire to run headfirst out into the waves. She had tried that before and it nearly killed her.

As much as Elsa hated to admit it, perhaps Hans was right. She wouldn't be any help to Arendelle or Anna if she drowned.

"You can have the hut," Hans' quiet voice spoke from behind her. "I'll sleep outside."

It was a peace offering, one final attempt to keep Elsa from braving the deadly waves again. She glanced back at him.

"Alright."

/

Elsa laid in the too warm hut alone for about an hour. There was a nagging feeling of guilt in her chest that she knew shouldn't have been there.

Hans deserved to freeze outside all night. Just because he had saved her and been nice to her that evening, none of that made up for the past. He still tried to kill her and Anna and he deserved to never have a peaceful sleep.

Elsa stared at the low-burning fire in front of her. Hans had placed a couple more logs on it before exiling himself from the hut. He even reminded her that there was dried meat hanging on the wall if she was hungry.

Elsa had briefly considered eating a few pieces of the meat but when she realized it was reindeer, Sven's face popped in her head and she couldn't bring herself to do it.

It felt weird laying in the bed Hans used every night. His scent was locked into every fiber of the pillow and blankets, it filled her nose, scrambled her head.

And the warmth... Even with only the thin green blanket over her, the bed was still much too warm.

She finally sat up and took the pillow and thin blanket to the other side of the hut. She laid down on the cold floor, the chill of the ground a welcome relief from the heat of the makeshift bed. It only comforted her for a minute though as Hans' scent still clung to the pillow and blanket.

Elsa huffed with frustration and pushed the blanket and pillow away from her, residing herself to just curling up on the floor. She stared at the small bed across the campfire and suddenly spotted the blue coat lying beside it. She frowned to herself.

He didn't even take his coat? He probably thought she still needed all the layers of warmth she could get.

Elsa shut her eyes tight and rolled over onto her other side, determined to ignore whatever discomfort Hans might be feeling right then. He deserved it, after all.

But the events of that evening kept playing over in her mind.

Hans had... saved her. It still didn't make any sense.

Maybe...

No.

... But maybe... just maybe Hans regretted his actions in the past.

He wasn't necessarily trying to correct his past mistakes but perhaps he was trying to do better now.

It was a bold theory and one Elsa quickly banished with a frown and a shake of her head. From what Elsa knew of Hans, and, admittedly, it wasn't much, he didn't do anything without some ulterior motive in mind. He was merely trying to get on the queen of Arendelle's good side. That had to be it.

But even as the thought crossed her mind, that nagging feeling in her gut refused to let go of the fact that, regardless of intention, he did save her.

Elsa heaved a sigh and sat up again. She retrieved the heavy coat and pushed open the wooden door. She looked around at the dark hills and trees before finally spotting Hans curled up in the grass beneath a tree about twenty feet away from the hut.

He didn't appear to be shivering. In fact, it seemed like he was sleeping quite soundly.

Elsa quietly walked over to him, observing the rhythmic rise and fall of his broad chest. His face was peaceful, his orangish-red hair falling over his forehead in a tousled mess. He looked... handsome, she reluctantly admitted to herself.

She could see now why Anna had fallen for him so quickly back in Arendelle. A man like that professing a fast undying love, Elsa might have found it difficult herself to resist.

She quickly pushed the thoughts out of her mind and then threw the coat ungracefully down onto Hans' head. She giggled when he startled and pushed the coat from his face with a glare. But when his emerald eyes met hers, all traces of irritation dissolved from his features.

Elsa flashed him a mischievous smirk and then turned and sauntered back to the hut. She could feel Hans' eyes glued to her back until the door shut behind her.


End file.
